Oh no, I never said Nahuatl "ll" was supposed to be pronounced as in Spanish "ll". I am telling you that it is fine if you pronounce it as a simple "L", as in... what do u speak? German... as in German "alle" And yes, it would be cool if I did some excercises for all this, but it's already a bit of work to organize and edit the lessons ('cause I do some extra reasearch, instead of just copying my notes, put some order to them, and translate it all into English), and each time I end up not wanting to know anything else about it I might post some excercises one day

Ok I would say "in tlacatl nicampa" (the person behind me), and "in tlacatl nixpan" (the person infront of me).'Cause I know you can say "in tlacatl notloc" for "the person next to me", but it doesn't say if it is before or after... "in tlacatl nopan" would be "the person above me", but i am having trouble with "the person below", that's why the ones highlighted would be my suggestions.

Hello there, welcome to lesson number 16 . We have already seen transitive verbs, and along with them, we saw the object particle for the third person (him/her/it) C/QUI, and the object particles for “(to) people” TE, and “(to) things” TLA (Lessons 8 & 9). Well, now we are going to learn the (direct/indirect) object particles for the rest of the personal pronouns. Here they are:

So, if you remember what we saw before, “I eat this meat” would be “(Nehuatl) niccua inin nacatl”, right? With the C between the conjugation pronoun and the verb indicating “it”, in this case. So literally “I eat it, this meat”. Well, the other object particles we just saw are used like that too. Let’s see some examples:

Nimitzmaca (Ni + mitz + maca) = I give you…Antechmacah inin xochicualli = You (people) give us this fruitQuinmacaz inon mecanonotzalli = he will give them that phoneTinechtlazohtla? = do you love me?Amini oquimictili in mazatl = the hunter killed the deer

DIMINUTIVELet’s see the diminutive ending, equivalent to “ito/ita” endings in Spanish, or… “little…” in English maybe? The ending is: TON/ TOTON.That’s where Mizton (cat) comes from. Because Miztli means puma, mountain lion. But “little puma” would be the domestic cat: Mizton or miztontli.

Hi, welcome to Lesson number 17. In previous lessons, we learnt the irregular verb CA, which would be the equivalent to Spanish verb “estar”, in English it can be the verb “to be” but not always, because Nahuatl actually doesn’t have a verb “to be”. Let’s see the present, past and future tenses of this very irregular verb:

CA (Present tense)NicaTicaCaTicatehAncatehCateh

CA (Past tense)OnicatcaOticatcaOcatcaOticatcahOancatcahOcatcah

CA (Future tense)NiyezTiyezYezTiyezquehAnyezquehYezqueh

Yalhua onicatca ompa = I was there yesterdayYez cenca quetzalli = It will be very beautifulCampa ca in axixcalco? = where is the bathroom?

POSSESSION (Axcaitl)In Lesson 6 we saw the possessive pronouns. Those are used to say: my, your, his/her/its, our, your (plural) and their. Well, if you add “axca” (or “huaxca” in some regions) to those possessive pronouns, you get the following:Noaxca = mineMoaxca = yoursIaxca = his/hersToaxca = oursAnmoaxca = yours (plural)Inaxca = theirs

COUNTRIES, PEOPLE & LANGUAGESWe already know that Mexicatl means Mexican and Caxtiltecatl means Spaniard. Let’s see some other countries and the name for the people living there. Aztecs or Mexicas obviously didn’t know about France, Japan, etc., at least not before old Spaniards came to invade. Most of these names, if not all, were taken from Spanish in one way or another. There is more than one variant, and there is no official way to call all these countries, but little by little everything seems to be standardizing. I will give you the name of some countries, their inhabitants, and their languages. I compared 2 dictionaries, Wikipedia, and sometimes my teacher’s version. This is the result :

How to say USA? There is an open discussion about this Aulex dictionary says “TICA”, which stands for Tlahtocayotl In Cepanca ihuicpa America (literal translation with the word America left as it is). It also says Yancuic Anglitlalpan (New England), which can be a bit confusing, because there is a region in the USA called that Finally, Wikipedia says Tlacetililli Tlahtocayotl Ixachitlan, which is, in my opinion, the most thorough translation so far, so that would be… TTI? In that case, “American (as in an American)” would be… “Tlacetililli Tlahtocayotl Ixachitecatl”, nice huh. Yancuic anglitlaltecatl would be easier... Ixachitlan means America as the American Continent, so maybe if we adapt the word and say “Americatecatl” people would understand that we mean people from the USA. Anyway, that’s all I can say about it for now, let’s see what happens.

First some vocabulary:tamazolli = toadazcatl = anttzicatl = ant (a special one, big and poisonous)tlehco = to get up/onolinia = to movepiloa = to hang (as a reflexive verb it means "to hold")ihtoa = to say (as in "mihtoa" which we already saw)mini = to sting/bitetzicuini = to jump

Mizton wrote:COUNTRIES, PEOPLE & LANGUAGESWe already know that Mexicatl means Mexican and Caxtiltecatl means Spaniard. Let’s see some other countries and the name for the people living there. Aztecs or Mexicas obviously didn’t know about France, Japan, etc., at least not before old Spaniards came to invadedrop by to say hi.

jk

Jokes aside, this lesson about countries, people and languages was very interesting, I read it throughly. Thanks for posting!

Niltze! Welcome to Lesson number 18 . This time we are going to see the imperative form, how to express need and capacity, and a few phrases, but first some vocabulary.

VOCABULARYItechpa = about (talk about, think about, etc.)Tzompilli / tzompilahui = a cold/ the fluTlamachtilcalli/tlamachtilcalco/tlamachtiloyan = schoolNahuatia = to let know, to notifyTechia = to wait for someoneCholoa = to flee, to escapeIhiyotia / ihiyoana = to breathTahtaca = to scratch (becomes reflexive when the person scratches him/herself)Papachoa = to pamper, to aid (this is where the Spanish verb apapachar comes from)Iciuhcac = fast, quicklyXinechtlapopolhui = I’m sorry, excuse meCanah = somewhere, some place(s)Canah quiahui canah amo quiahui = in some places it rains in some others it doesn’t(Mo)teca = to lay down (reflexive)Cuica = to singMihtotia = to dance(Mo)tlalia = to sit down (reflexive)Yece / Auh = butMama = to carryConi = to drinkTzahtzi / tzahtzilia = to shout, to screamTlahuelcui / cualania = to get mad, to get angryTilmatlahuatzaloni = towelTepoztlecuilli = stoveNenemilia = to thinkNenemi = to walk(Mo)centlalia = to meet, to gather (reflexive)Namaca = to sellMoquetza = to stand upTilana = to pullMayana = to be hungryPolihui = to be missingAmo tla = nothing (like “Amitla”, but this one is used more often with verbs: amo tla polihui – “nothing’s missing”).Huetzca = to laughZan quezqui = just a fewMehua = to get up

NEED / HAVE TO & CAN / CAN’TMONEQUI literally means “It is wanted (that)”, and that’s the verb we use to express a need. The verb next to it should be in the future tense. We will conjugate the verb that follows MONEQUI. Examples: Monequi niyaz = I have to goMonequi ticholoz = you have to escapeMonequi anquicuaz = you guys have to eat itAmo monequi nitequitiz = I don’t have to work

HUEL / HUELI / HUELITI is the verb for “to be able to”. Its usage is similar to that of MONEQUI, but the second verb doesn’t have to be in the future tense. And the negative form can be AMO HUEL(I) or AHUEL. Examples:Huel nicchihuaz = I’ll be able to do itAhuel nicochi = I can’t sleep

Note: HUEL can also mean “very”, as in “tlazohcamati huel miac” = thank you very much.

IMPERATIVEIn Nahuatl all 6 persons have an imperative form. For the first and third persons in both singular and plural (I, he, we, and they), we add the particle MA before the conjugation pronoun, some verbs lose their ending, and in the plural we add the suffix CAN. Examples (Tlayeyecolli):

HE / SHE (for the third person, we can translate it as “may he/she…”)Ma tlacua = may he eatMa moteca = may he lay downMa momachti = may he studyMa cuica = may he singMa mihtoti = may he danceMa motlali = may he sit

Now, there are two suffixes that we can use in the imperative form to indicate direction: TI and QUI. The TI suffix means “go to”, and the suffix QUI means “come to”.Examples:Xitlacuati = go eat something!Xitlacuaqui = come to eat something!Xicochiti = go to sleep!Xicochiqui = come to sleep!Xitequititi = go to work!

Hi people, welcome to lesson number 19 . This time we will see some more vocabulary, the words to express “with (someone)”, the most common suffixes for place names, and a few phrases and conversations.

WITHA word that is generally equivalent to English “with”, would be “ica”, as in “Ica paquiliztli” (with pleasure). But when we talk about people we don’t usually say “ica”. For this we are going to use the word TLOC (TLOCTZINCO in its reverential form). Sometimes it can also be understood as “next to” or “near”. To use it, we have to add the possessive pronouns are prefixes:

Notloc = with me/ next to me/ near meMotloc = with you/ next to you/ near youItloc = with him, her, it/ next to him, her, it/ near him, her, itTotloc = with us / next to us/ near usAnmotloc = with you (plural)/ next to you (plural)/ near you (plural)Intloc = with them/ next to them/ near themHere we have some examples:Aquin mocehuitica itloc Miguel? = Who is sitting with/next to Miguel? (Lit. “with him, Miguel”)Timihtotiznequi notloc? = Do you want to dance with me?

CONVERSATIONSTlen, Aurora in aquin tlahtoa itloc tepahtiani? = What, is it Aurora who’s talking with the doctor?Melahuac, yehuatl tlahtotica itloc teyollopahtiani = It’s true (right), she is talking with the cardiologist.Aurora momachtia in hueyi tlamachtiloyan? = Does Aurora study at the university?Amo, yehuatl temachtiani, tequiti in Amatlan, ihuan no(ihqui) ompa chanti. = No, she is a teacher, she works in Amatlan, and she also lives there.

Tiquixmati Amatlan? = Do you know Amatlan?Amatlan, in campa chanti Aurora, cencualtzin = Amatlan is where Aurora lives, it’s very beautiful.Yehuatl paccanemi intloc impilhuan (in-pilhuan) ihuan inamic. = She lives happily with her kids and her husband.Inamic itoca David. David yaochiuhqui. = Her husband’s name is David. David is a soldier.Quimpiah yei ipilhuan. Intelpoch Andrés tequiti in amatitlaloyan, Memo temachtiani, ihuan Citlalli tequiti ompa cocoxcacalco. = They have three children. Their son ( young guy) Andrés works at the post office, Memo is a teacher, and Citlalli works in the hospital.

How's the Nahuatl course going for you? I think I have to learn Nahuatl some day, it's just so cool, and I can't seem to get away from it.

If you ever have any more lessons to post, they would be greatly appreciated, since there isn,t a whole lot on Nahuatl in English.

Oh, did you ever find any online texts in Nahuatl? If not, do you know of a website I could order books written in Nahuatl? Preferably the classical orthography, since it looks much more aesthetically pleasing to me. What the texts or books are about doesn't matter much though.

Hello Sean, well it's just that right now i'm focusing on one single modern variant, the one from Milpa Alta (still the Federal District), and I just stoped uploading lessons.... I am preparing a major Nahuatl project for the internet, but I'll realease it next summer.There are some amazing news Like... Firefox is being translated into Nahuatl they already released a Mayan and a Zapotec version.I haven't found lots of texts in Nahuatl online... the ones I have are in books... hm, have you tried http://mexica.ohui.net/ ? they have some texts there.I'm writing my blog in Nahuatl again if you wanna visit http://miztonpixan.blogspot.com/Altho i'm not a native speaker....

I just found you and now it looks like it is necessary to apply myself. I have dabbled for years and scanned your lessons up to here. I have an English speaking Mexican friend in DF who has adopted me as his abuelo. I used one of my many dictionaries and located colli as grandfather so I have been signing my e-mail as colli.

Then I read a post about the derivation of name colima for a town in Mexico. It says the name comes from Nahuatl colli maitl and means conquered by the hands of grandfather. I started to sign as colli matl but did not really mean 'conquered by hands of grandfather

Now I think this lesson teaches that I can sign as "Nomatl colli" meaning hand of grandfather or meaning by the hand of grandfather. This is another example of word order,

Ok, this is a very good question. I personally think that the best option would be "Nomah nicolli", literally "my hand, I the grandfather". Maitl loses the ending when used with a possessive pronoun, and "colli" all alone would really mean "he-(is)-the-grandfather". So that would be my option: Nomah nicolli. If there's any native speaker here who doesn't agree, please let me know.

HELLO, HOW ARE YOU GUYS? I JUST UPLOADED A NEW FILE CALLED "NÁHUATL HISPANOHABLANTES". A WORD DOCUMENT CONTAINING THIS SAME COURSE, BUT MORE CONCISE AND EXTENDED (THERE ARE MORE LESSONS IN THE SPANISH, ORIGINAL VERSION), AND SOME MISTAKES HAVE BEEN CORRECTED. ENJOY, ALL OF YOU WHO SPEAK SPANISH.